Leaked audio was shared in the lead up to the 2016 election which saw Donald Trump tell ex-Access Hollywood host Billy Bush “when you’re a star, they let you do anything”. But Stephanie Winston Wolkoff claimed in a tell-all Mrs Trump did not mind the remark and said “he is who he is”.
Following the release ‘Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady’, Ms Wolkoff claimed in an interview Mrs Trump was concerned whether the leaked audio would affect Mr Trump’s election campaign.
The former aide quoted her as saying: “If it weren’t for this, there would be no question, he would win.”
When asked by Ms Wolkoff if she was angry over the comments, Mrs Trump replied: “Nope! He is who he is.”
She then added: “I told him that if he ran for president, he had to be ready for everything to be opened up and exposed. His whole life.”
When the Access Hollywood recording emerged in October, Mrs Trump publicly bashed her husband for his comments.
She said: “The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me.
“This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader.
“I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”
Speaking to The Times, Ms Wolkoff said the former First Lady seemed disinterested in her husband’s scandals.
She added: “Melania just moves on. It’s not that it’s just not humiliating; it’s as if it doesn’t register.”
In February 2018, Ms Wolkoff terminated her contract with the White House following reports she was paid $26 million for her work ahead of the Trump’s inauguration.
The former aide “begged Melania to clear my name” but the then-First Lady said: “I would defend you, but I don’t want to break the law.”
Ms Wolkoff added to the Times: “I thought that she had empathy, but she has zero.
“I thought that she had morals. She has zero.”
The former aide also claimed Mrs Trump would call Mr Trump after every rally to tell him how “wonderful and great” the President was.
Ms Wolkoff said to the Hollywood Life podcast: “She tells him how it is but she also makes sure to elevate him and embrace what he’s doing, because that is who she is.”
After the release of her book last year, Mrs Trump’s former chief of staff Stephanie Grisham said: “The book is not only full of mistruths and paranoia, it is based on some imagined need for revenge.
“Wolkoff builds herself up while belittling and blaming everyone she worked with, yet she still managed to be the victim.
“Sadly, this is a deeply insecure woman whose need to be relevant defies logic.”